Disruption in the Philippines: How blockchain is bringing a privacy revolution to the masses

The personal data of 55 million Filipinos including their fingerprints were recently hacked and posted online but the international media doesn’t seem to care. All we hear about is Putin, Cameron, Amitabh Bachchan and the irritating Panama Papers

From the data leak of the Philippines' election commission to other large government data leaks, from a database of Turkish residents to personnel management files in a US office, who is responsible for the privacy of the masses?

People's privacy seems to be ignored

In March 2016, a massive breach in the Philippines’ Commission on Elections database resulted in the personal data of 55 million Filipino voters being posted online. This included sensitive data like passport information and fingerprints.

The Philippine government has downplayed the significance of the data leak and said it would not affect the upcoming elections, but the breach does put ordinary Filipinos at risk of identity theft and targeted phishing attacks.

While the Panama Papers have received high-profile attention due to their involvement with the rich and famous, the Philippines data breach has received relatively limited international media coverage compared to the ever-changing files leaked from Mossack Fonseca.

The Philippine government enacted the Data Privacy Act in 2012. The DPA empowers the National Privacy Commission to administer and enforce the law.

That the committee had not yet been formed showed the government's lackadaisical attitude. Its subsequent response highlighted the fact that failure to secure the database was not considered a crime.

How JPMorgan Chase escaped

JPMorgan Chase suffered a data breach in 2014 that compromised the data of 76 million customer households, and the government charged three hackers after an investigation. However, JPMorgan Chase was not held accountable for failing to protect customer data.

Government apathy and increasing privacy breaches ignore the root of the problem – centralized trust.

We trust government organizations to keep our records safe; we trust banks to keep our confidential data secure. Yet history shows that these centralized organizations can fail.

Decentralization as an alternative

Bitcoin has demonstrated that encryption and decentralization can provide a successful alternative to traditional methods of protecting data.

Sensitive data can be protected using blockchain and encryption, and transactions can be executed through smart contracts, where privacy management is enforced by specifying exactly who can view them.

Since users cannot view data (unless authorized), the execution of transactions can only be verified through digital signatures, so the data security solution combined with blockchain is relatively good.

Protecting people’s privacy

Technology has brought about a sudden change in people’s lives.

Mobile phones, once the preserve of the rich, are now affordable to the average person. The internet has enabled small businesses and changed the lives of millions, if not billions. Blockchain can be the technology that keeps data secure for the masses.